Chris Clegg
South Peace News

A High Prairie student has made history, if the High Prairie Royal Canadian Legion president’s memory hasn’t failed him.

Don Ebbett says Taylor Oliver-Guerin’s Senior Colour Poster in the annual 2020 Remembrance Day contest has made it all the way to national judging in Ottawa. It’s the first time a local entry has advanced to the national finals.

“First is $1,000, second is $500 and third $250,” Ebbett says, adding the poster has certainly caught the eye of all judges.

Oliver-Guerin’s poster shows a pin-up girl sitting on a plane surrounded by poppies. For her efforts, Oliver-Guerin, a student at E.W. Pratt High School, has won $75 for winning the High Prairie Legion Branch level, $80 at the District level [which includes 18 branches in northwest Alberta. Provincially, Ebbett believes she placed first for judging in Ottawa but does not know the prize money.

Oliver-Guerin says she has drawn many pin-up girls and the Remembrance Day contest seemed a natural fit. The poppies were a natural for the border.

“I planned to do a frame but used poppies,” she says.

The plane and the iconic ‘Lest We Forget’ complete the poster.

Meanwhile, Haggerty’s Junior Poem won all the same awards as Oliver-Guerin except she placed second at the provincial level. She was a Grade 6 student at High Prairie Elementary School at the time of her composition.

Haggerty takes home $80 for winning Districts and $100 for placing second provincially. She won $75 at the High Prairie Branch level.

The poem, beautifully set in a cluster of poppies, is published on this page. The words in the poem speak for themselves.